When it comes to decorating your NYC apartment, you want something that is uniquely your own. This means finding artsy home decorating ideas that stand out and catch the eye, while still being comfortable and cozy. While this may seem like a challenge, it doesn’t have to be, and with these five tips, you can start making your NYC apartment exactly the way you want.
1. The Walls
The walls of your NYC apartment are blank canvases that you can and should decorate to help them stand out. No one wants to look at bare walls, and colors and textures can be important factors when it comes to integrating artsy home decorating ideas into your apartment. When it comes to thinking about what to do with your walls exactly, you have a lot of options and the ones you decide on will depend on your unique style and taste.
Faux stone walls are becoming increasingly popular and they can help bring depth, texture, and contrast to any living space. Perfect for living rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms, these walls make for great accent pieces that you can build your room around. The best part about faux stone is that it costs only a fraction of the price of natural stone, and it doesn’t sacrifice the look. You won’t have to worry about these walls looking fake or out of place because most guests won’t even know unless you tell them!
Faux stone walls are particularly great in bathrooms as they can help minimize the risk of mold, and you won’t have to worry about the streaking that can occur along painted walls due to condensation from hot showers. They can also provide a luxurious and modern feeling to the space, without feeling too busy or overbearing.
If stone walls aren’t your thing, creative paint colors can be used instead. Accent walls are a great way to add visual interest to a living space, and you can use almost any color you want so long as it doesn’t clash with your decor. Warm colors such as red, yellow, and orange, are often used in living spaces and kitchens as they can help boost energy and mood, which is great for these areas of your home. On the other hand, cool colors such as blue, purple, and green, can help promote calmness, making them more suited for studies, bedrooms, and bathrooms. However, when painting your bathroom, you may want to look into paint protection such as a clear coat, to help seal in the color and protect from stains.
Once you’ve settled on the best walls for your apartment, you can start considering artsy home decorating ideas such as abstract paintings, mirrors, and tapestries that can adorn them to complete the look.
2. The Floors
Once you have the walls fixed up, you can start to consider the flooring throughout your apartment, as well as things like decorative rugs. Flooring can play a large role in tying together the style and theme of your apartment, so it is important that you consider the color and the material when deciding which options are best for you.
Artistic floor titles can be used to create a range of styles and patterns that can really bring your apartment to life. From spiral mosaics to intricate repeating patterns, there is a lot of potential when it comes to using tile as a flooring material. However, polished concrete can also be an artistic option, and even this material can be etched to include designs. That said, even laminate hardwood can provide a striking finish, especially when coupled with a bold statement rug.
When considering what flooring is best for you, you may want to speak with a few different home remodeling contractors to see exactly what they can provide for you. Some may be more experienced with artistic styles, making them more capable of coming up with unique flooring designs for your apartment.
If you’re thinking about what rugs to add, consider how bold you want your rugs to be and how much you want them to stand out. Although they can make great focal points, they can also take away from others areas that you may want visitors to focus on more, such as a bold couch, accent wall, or painting.
3. Update Your Kitchen
When considering artsy home decorating ideas, your kitchen is one area that you should focus on, as it is one of the most used rooms in your home. However, if your kitchen is outdated or if the style just isn’t sparking joy, you may want to fix it up so that you’ll actually be excited to spend time in it. One of the biggest things to consider updating is your cabinets. A kitchen cabinet can see a lot of wear and tear, especially those that are opened and closed a lot. This can cause scratches, stains, and wear on the paint. Having these replaced or refurbished can be one of the easiest ways to breathe new life into your kitchen.
While updating your cabinets, you could consider making them a focal point by painting them or replacing them with cabinets in an eye-catching color, such as robin’s eye blue or turquoise. This can help them stand out, and it’s one of the best artsy home decorating ideas because it can give an artistic feeling to your cooking space. When coupled with an exciting backsplash or contrasting appliance colors, this can be a really great way to give your kitchen a little extra oomph.
The countertops in your kitchen can also be considered, especially if they are dull and worn out. Artistic glass countertops can be a great replacement and they can be custom made for your kitchen so that they really stand out. Some feature swirls of color throughout, others look like something akin to a galaxy or the northern lights. The possibilities are really almost endless with these countertops and they are surprisingly durable and resistant to heat.
Lastly, you may want to update your kitchen floor to bring some extra life to your cooking space. While there are a lot of great options, such as polished concrete, you may also consider epoxy flooring which can be customized for a truly artistic feeling. While this flooring can also be used for living spaces and bathrooms, in kitchens it really provides a sleek modern luster that can be difficult to find with other types of flooring. When color-coordinated with glass countertops, it can truly make your kitchen pop.
4. Beautify Your Bathroom
Along with your kitchen, your bathroom is another space that you are likely going to spend a good deal of time in, so it’s a great place to use some artsy home decorating ideas. Whether you want to relax in the bath after work or spend extra time getting ready in the mornings, making sure your bathroom is everything you want it to be is important.
When looking for artsy home decoration ideas, you’ll find no shortage of eye-catching bathtubs just begging to be installed in your NYC apartment. Clawfoot tubs are some of the most sought-after today, and they can be a great focal point and a great place for relaxing. Similar in popularity are Japanese soaking tubs, which are much deeper, and often include a seat so that you can sit down comfortably while basking in the warm water. These tubs are often considered to be great for stress relief and, after soaking in one, you may come to be a believer as well. However, benefits aside, these tubs can be a very striking inclusion if you are trying to create the artsiest bathroom possible.
That said, if you are planning on installing a new tub, you may have to have some of the plumbing reconfigured, especially if you install a tub in the place of a shower. A plumber will be able to tell you everything that you need to do, and many can have the work done in a couple of days so that you can start enjoying your new tub as soon as possible. Just make sure to have your landlord take care of any elevator repairs before starting this project, especially if you live on a high floor. You don’t want to risk having your plumbers walk up and down 30 flights of stairs each time they need a new tool from their truck.
5. Smart Technology
Although when looking for artsy home decorating ideas, you may not consider smart technology, it can surprisingly have a lot to offer. For example, while your landlord should take care of your AC repair, you can have a professional AC install company come and hook up your system to a smart thermostat. Smart thermostats are sleek and much more pleasing to look at than clunky older models, and they can be seamlessly controlled from your smartphone. It can even alert you to problems with your heating and cooling systems, which can be extra helpful in case you need repairs.
Science Direct even released a study showing that smart thermostats and solar panels are the ultimate power duo. And, while you may not be able to install a lot of panels, even a single solar panel in a sunny window can help save energy.
Additionally, smart thermostats can also be integrated into systems such as Google’s Nest. Hubs like this help consolidate all of your smart technology so that you can easily control everything that you have hooked up. While all of this may not seem like one of the best artsy home decorating ideas, smart technology has one more trick up its sleeve.
Smart LED lightbulbs can be installed in any of your light fixtures and they can cut down on energy consumption while also lasting longer than non-LED bulbs. However, what makes them so artistically inclined is their ability to switch between colors and pre-created mood lighting effects. Red lights, blue lights, pink lights, green lights, white lights, yellow lights, and more can all be easily switched between depending on what you want. You can also dim these lights right from your smartphone without needing to have a dimmer switch installed.
Additionally, artistic lighting like this can even be scheduled to turn on at a certain time based on a schedule you set for it. Some even have options for changing lighting based on the weather, temperature, and your location. For instance, you can set them to go off when you leave and instantly come on when you return home.
Combined with this, you can also have smart speakers included in this hub so that you can listen to music with voice commands or via your smartphone. You can also set them to wake you up in the morning so that you can start the day with energetic lighting and a music-filled apartment.
When it comes to looking for artsy home decorating ideas, smart technology is both great for every day and for entertaining guests.
An Artistic Spin On Any Apartment
When it comes to creating the most artistic apartment possible, you have a lot to consider. You’ll want to keep in mind both practicality and your own unique tastes when picking out all of the features that you want to have included. However, this process doesn’t have to be difficult, and with these five tips, you can start to put together a plan of action that can help you transform your living space into something you and your guests will fall in love with.
If you are looking for artsy home decorating ideas, keep these five tips in mind when drawing up your plan, and consider working with a contractor or interior designer to help you create the best living space for you. While it may take some time, once everything is done, your apartment will quickly become one of your favorite places to be.
